Page 42 of Under Pressure

With a little grin, she tilted to one side, pulled a paper from a pocket in her skirt, and showed him the image of the team on the cover of the Diamond Cove Times. Hopefully, this whole thank-your-local-marine thing would blow over fast. Their mission didn’t need the scrutiny, plus Gray hadn’t stopped grumbling about everyone calling him a marine since yesterday.

They thought Sean had been grumpy because of Blue? He’d also been grumpy because of Gray’s incessant whining. He’donly managed to get him to stop by proposing a revenge plan they’d carried out last night.

The two of them had gathered a bunch of extra nuts and bolts, found Titan Green’s boats, and scattered them over the deck. Next time he took his boats out, he and his team would be stopping every five minutes to check the engine for loose pieces. Ha!

“Looks like you and your team are local celebrities.” She glanced at the article and furrowed her brow. “I’m surprised they got your military branch wrong though.”

Sean couldn’t take the suspense anymore. “For the record, carbonation stings way more than salt water. What are you doing here, Blue?”For the third time.

She cringed. “Yeah, sorry about that. I was . . . surprised. I really didn’t think I’d ever see you again, so to have you come into my store . . .”

He nodded. Seeing her had been a shock for him as well. But the truth was, it shouldn’t have been. She chose to end it, and it had been years. The old hurt growled in his heart. “Did you need something?”

A lump rose and fell in her delicate throat. “I heard about Amelia. I know she meant the world to you. I guess, I just wanted to extend my condolences. See if you’re all right?”

Ah, okay. Yeah, this made sense. Finally. “It’s always hard losing people you care about. Nonna was a force of nature. But we all knew it was coming sooner than later. It’s hard, but I’ll be okay.” He would be.

Their original SEAL unit had had twenty-three men, but two of them had died in an ambush attack a few years back. They’d been so young and had families. Those losses had been ones he’d had a hard time dealing with. Unexpected. Unplanned. Unforeseen. But they’d also prepared him to deal with death later on. With Nonna, the situation was different. He felt luckyfor the time he’d gotten to spend with her and had many treasured memories—a few bad ones too, but the good outdid the bad by far.

“I wish I could’ve said goodbye to her.” Blue stared at her boots, and worried at her bottom lip with her teeth.

He reached up and gently pulled at that soft skin of her lip with his thumb until she released it with a gasp. He dropped his hand. Looked like old habits died hard. “She would’ve liked that.”

Resting a hand on his arm, Blue said. “Thank you, Sean.”

“It’s good to see you, Blue,” he said, meaning it. It was a good thing she was engaged, really, because Sean had way too many things on his plate right now as it was. Responsibilities. Promises to keep. People, like Ryker and everyone in his country, he couldn’t let down. There was just no time in his schedule for a personal life. He swallowed hard against the lump trying to suffocate him.

“You too.”

7

Chapter 7

Blue

Turning around and walking out of the warehouse and away from Sean was just as hard now as leaving him had been all those years ago. There was just something about him, there’d always been something about him. He eased her soul. Made her feel calm even when life battered her around like high winds at the top of a cliff before a base jump. He was the calm in her stormy life. Even now. Even after a decade he still had that impact on her.

With slow, but sure strides, she headed out the door and down to the boardwalk on the beach. The cool night air felt good on her overheated skin, and she fanned herself to get more of it as she took deep breaths. A couple passed, walking barefootin the sand, hand-in-hand, and Blue’s mind went back to all the times she and Sean had done the same. It made her heart ache.

She hadn’t wanted to leave tonight. She’d wanted to sit down on that rickety old couch of his in his office and talk. Really talk to someone who listened with his whole being. Let his warmth wash over her. But she couldn’t do that. Their relationship hadn’t exactly ended on a positive note, and she was engaged now. As much as she’d like to pretend that she and Sean could be friends, they couldn’t. Neverjustfriends. That wasn’t who they were to one another, and it never would be. She couldn’t do that to him, to her, or to Jonah.

She especially couldn’t stay after she’d learned Sean’d named his boat after her. She didn’t even want to think about the significance of that, but for some reason, it’d made her feel terribly guilty.

Besides, Sean wasn’t safe. In the past, he’d had a hold on her that had felt secure until he’d left and nearly toppled what was really a teetering existence. With him, she’d thought she’d found solid ground, but the moment he’d left he’d pulled it out from under her like a carpet from under a three-legged chair. Like stepping off a cliff without a parachute and no water below.

She mindlessly waved at another couple passing her on the boardwalk as she headed toward the pier shops and her apartment over Leather and Lace, her ring on her left hand catching the light from a streetlamp. The stone was a marquise, 4.5 carats, and glittered like the stars at night.

Jonah was safe because she never worried about what would happen to her if he left—not that she expected him to leave. But she didn’t love him the way she loved Sean, wild and free. Love could be controlled, calm, sure, steady, predictable, and boring.

Not that Jonah was boring. No. Psha. He was a thrill seeker, just like her. Exciting. Bold. Daring. Those were the words that described him.

Coming up in the distance at the beach park, the Ferris Wheel happily spun in slow circles, the white lights reflected off the bay as it went round and round. Another memory hit her, this one with a force that nearly knocked the wind out of her. A memory of her and her little brother riding a similar Ferris wheel back in Chicago.

Blue screamed as the Ferris wheel came to a stop at the top of the ride and a spider scurried over her leg and onto the seat between her and Dominic.

Dom arched a brow at her.

“Get it, get it!” she yelped, pressing against the side of the carriage and as far away from the bug as humanly possible.

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